Create an Ice Cream Type Treatment in Photoshop

It’s funny to see how simple objects can inspire creative type treatments. In the past I’ve played with plates, paper and wood. Today I will show you how to realize an awesome text effect using ice cream! The process is simple enough for any level Photoshop lover. We will be dealing with illustration techniques, and will explore the power of layer styles applied to custom brushes. So… give it a try!

Step 1

Let’s start by creating a new Photoshop document. Mine is 2560×1440 pixels. Fill the background with a color of your choice (it’s not important at this stage), and double click on the layer thumb to open the layer styles window.

Step 2

At this point we need to choose the right font for the illustration. If you have more patience, you could try drawing custom letters in Illustrator. Just try to make them bold and a bit irregular. If you’re lazy, like me, do a search for the right font: Doughboy, realized by Lucas Sharp, looks perfect!.

Write a word or phrase. A suggestion: type each letter on a separate layer.

Step 3

I will show you how I created the first letter, S. The process for the other letters is the same, so once you’ve learned how to create your first ice-cream letter, you’ll be able to reproduce it infinite times.

Start by rasterizing the type: right-click on the letter thumbnail > rasterize type. Then right-click again and select “Blending options”. We will play with layer styles to start giving color and depth to the illustration.

Add a light red (#fd5e74) color overlay.

Select Bevel and Emboss with the following settings and check “contour” to make the 3d effect more evident.

Finally add Satin, set on color dodge, to put in some interesting details.

Step 4

To make the ice-cream/letter more realistic we can use a texture. Download this ice image and merge it into the document (File > Open…), directly above the letter. Press ctrl+T to activate the free transform tool and resize the image.

Set the texture color mode to color burn with opacity 10%

Finally with the texture still selected, ctrl+click over the letter (layer thumbnail) to make a selection of its pixels, and add a layer mask. By doing this you will remove the texture areas that exceed the letter.

To add a layer mask simply click the “add layer mask” button which is at the bottom of the layer window.

Step 5

Select both the texture and letter layers and press alt+ctrl+E to merge them into a new layer. We will use this image from now on, feel free to hide the 2 original layers.

Now let’s add a noise effect. Make sure to have white and black as foreground and background color, then create a new layer and fill it with black. Go to Filter > Noise > Add Noise…

Add a layer mask, as shown in step 4, so the noise effect will affect only the area covered by the letter:

Set the layer to screen to remove the black area, and reduce the opacity to around 30% to make the effect subtle.

Step 6

Let’s create the stick. Draw the main shape with the rounded rectangle tool (radius 30px).

Add a light brown (#f4d0b0) color overlay, then rasterize the layer.

With the Rectangular Marquee tool, select the top area of the shape and hit delete. Then ctrl+D to deselect.

Duplicate the shape layer by pressing ctrl+J. Then move the shape which is below a couple of pixel to the bottom-right. Switch its color to a darker brown (#d68f61).

Step 7

With the same technique used in step 4 and 5, let’s apply a wooden texture to the stick. Download our wooden textures and pick up a photo of your choice. Then merge it into the document.

Set the layer blend mode to overlay to see how it will affect the stick.

Reduce the opacity to around 60%, and add a layer mask to remove the area that exceeds the stick.

(To select both the shapes of the sticks, ctrl+click on the first shape, then hold down shift and click on the second one).

Select the texture layer and the two shapes of the stick from the layers window, then merge them into a new layer (alt+ctrl+E) and hide the original layers.

With the pen tool in path mode, create a path that covers a small top area of the stick that we will remove later. The purpose of this step is to make the stick less “rigid”.

Press ctrl+enter to activate the selection and hit delete.

Step 8

Using the Burn and Dodge tools, make darker and brighter areas of the ice cream main body. From the screenshot below you can see how I darkened the area behind the stick:

Apply the burn tool again, this time over the top of the stick. Based on the direction of the light source, this area should look darker.

Step 9

A light effect can help to enhance some texture details and make the frozen effect over the ice-cream look more realistic. So create a new group and set its blending mode to color dodge. Create a layer inside the group, grab a large, soft (hardness 0%), white brush and click once over the ice-cream. Reduce the opacity, if the effect is too strong.

Here is my outcome.

Step 10

Here comes the fun part! We will create drops and ice pieces with the use of layer styles. My first thought was to use stock images of drops and water, and play with their blending options to add the drops to the scene. However, after several attempts I decided to proceed with brushes and layer styles, thanks to the help of our great illustrator Diego. The result is more than satisfactory!

Create a new layer and grab a small round brush with hardness 100%. Then paint a spot over the ice-cream.

Double-click on the drop layer to open the style window. Reduce the fill opacity to 0%.

Add bevel and emboss. This will give depth to the drop:

Add a drop shadow and inner shadow.

Finally add inner glow and satin as the last touches:

Step 11

Now that you have the layer set up, just paint! I’ve created this screencast so you can see my process to realize the drops (with the help of my Wacom tablet).

Step 12

Here is the first letter complete:

Now create a new layer and paint the shadow effect with a soft black brush. Reduce the opacity so the result will look softer. Finally, use the same brush to create the drops on the floor.

The last touch: to increase the contrasts, just add a new gradient map layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient map). Add a gradient going from red (#ee202e) to blue (#002874) to yellow (#f9e600). Set the layer to overlay with opacity 30%.

Now that you know how to create a letter, you can apply it to the entire word or phrase. Exercise your creativity and play with different forms and colors.

You guys have the best tuts hands down. They are relevant, trendy and not cheesy or gimmicky like a lot of other sites tuts that I have seen.

When I had the option to either go Premiere with you guys or PSD Tuts, the fact that you were providing tuts that were current and relevant won out hands down. Thanks again for the awesome resources and then providing awesome tuts to implement the resources your provide. My membership is priceless.

hi i am krunal and i am only 14 yrs old and i am very intrested in this category and want to become like u but the tutorials r very hard according to me though the r the best so plz can u teach or help me doing esay and small tutorials
thank you
krunal
my email ID is krunalbora@yahoo.com
plz help me thank you again

Hi, Sebastiano sir firstly say great tuts i have no words to express, yours all tuts are too inspiration for us like who are new in this creative field but this time i am faced one problem, earlier lots of time i am download this Doughboy font but every time i got empty zip format file from that link : http://blog.typeslashcode.com/doughboy/ so please help me as early as possible. I am eagerly waiting for try this tuts

but sir in zip file there is a empty folder no font in it, so please help me either by you tell me other link from where i download this doughboy font or you mail me the font if is possible to you my email id:prateekgupta7303@gmail.com

Lost

February 12, 2011 at 10:16 am

Dear Sebastiano,
First off all, great tut! However, I encountered the same problem (most of the content of the folder is of 0kb, the .suit file I can’t use in win7 and can’t convert it)..I’m so eager to try this tut…but I couldn’t get pass through the font…wasn’t able to find other font as suitable as doughboy as well :( could you help me on this? thanks!

The tut looks delicious! I am trying it out, but I got stuck at the water drops…I can’t find the brush at Diego’s site…also, does downloading it needs a fee? do you have an alternative source where it is for free? thank you!

Hey. Thanks for a great tutorial. I just did the S and now wanted to give some other letters a try too. My colors are just not turning out so great. Could you tell me what colors you used. You know like in the tutorial with the letters and numbers. It would really help me a lot. And also which colors you used in the bevel and emboss. I would like the green, blue, yellow/orange and purple. Thanks a million if you would be so kind :)

I know these steps are a bit more difficult. I suppose you’re a newbie, just try painting with a round brush tool (B) and then add the style shown into the screenshot. To add a style, right-click on the layer and select “blending options”.

So, instead of leaving a more positive or helpful message (even if its tough luck) you resort to sarcasm and elitism under the guise of kidding around? That’s real professional of you. Thanks for showing your true colors.

Also consider potential customers who just so happen to find this little gem of yours. How old are you, anyway? 12?

Hey man! Gret Tut, I just have one issue and that’s is I can’t get really watery looking drops. They just end up looking like mercury. The are too dark. I followed your tut to a “T” but I am having trouble getting that “Wet” look.

While following one by one step in this tutorial I came across few shortcuts that I rarely used in my practice. Such shortcuts are are of huge importance. It was a nice experience studying this artwork. Thanks.

Sorry for another stupid question.. as I’m a relative beginner too.. but have got stuck early on with the tutorial as once I have created the first letter .. and have the ice layer effect / image in place above the rasterized type.. and with the texture still selected… I ctrl+click (I’m on a Mac by the way) so both layers appear highlighted in blue in the layers palette.. and then go to the layer mask symbol.. the option to do that is no longer available …so I can’t create the layer mask..? It appears with a black circle with a line through it when I move the cursor over the layer mask icon..

I did take a screen grab of it to try and show you but I can’t attach it here.. I would really love to do this tutorial and hope it’s not just something simple I’m doing wrong with it? So any feedback help from you would be so appreciated.

I used a tablet, so I was able to modify the brush size with the pressure of the pen. If you haven’t a graphic tablet, you need to experiment several brush sizes until you’re satisfied with the result. You could start with a larger size for the main shapes, then switch to a tinner size for the small details.

Thank you for tutorial this. I really love this style. :D
Make me know more about photoshop effects that I never think it can do like this. ???
Finally, I really learned about water effect. :D hahaha
very appreciate.

Hello, thanks a lot for a great tutorials.
I am a newbie. So I don’t know how to create a shadow as you said in step 12. Mine water drop is not real as yours too. T.T
Can you tell me which brush you used to draw the water drop. cos mine is not so good though. I mean size
Thanks again

Thaaaaaaaaaaaaank you for this tutorial
i think is one of the best tuts in all the time
+
unfortunatly !!! i didn’t complete it cause i can’t
i am not realy good in english
that’s the reason
soo Thank you again
^^

sir this is one of the most wonderful design ever i seen. i m amazed seeing ur creativity.. i can’t understand the step 4.. would u mind help me..i will b greatfull to if u kindly supply me the psd file of your tutorials.

Hello:
I feel very good the tutorial, but there is a question that I can not solve, by coupling the image is lost filling percentage of the layers.
As I can flatten the layers with different percentages of filler?

I do not know if you will be active tutorial comments, but if anyone can help me, I’d appreciate it is a problem that happens to me often.

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